{"id":5969,"date":"2014-07-09T11:26:52","date_gmt":"2014-07-09T10:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/?p=5969"},"modified":"2014-07-09T11:26:52","modified_gmt":"2014-07-09T10:26:52","slug":"big-band-fundraiser-a-thank-you-from-porchlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2014\/07\/09\/big-band-fundraiser-a-thank-you-from-porchlight\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Band fundraiser: a thank-you from Porchlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Porchlight’s Community Fundraising Officer, Kate Lumley<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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\"Kate<\/a>
Kate Lumley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thank you so much to Dan Harding, Ian Swatman, the\u00a0University Big Band and the\u00a0Music Department for supporting Porchlight with the first concert of Summer Music Week and wishing us a Happy Birthday! The charity\u2019s 40th Anniversary has certainly got off to a great start and we couldn\u2019t be more grateful for the support we\u2019ve received so far. It really is fantastic when local groups and businesses decide to fundraise for the charity (especially when that\u2019s combined with brilliant music-making at the seaside!) because their efforts really help change people\u2019s lives in their community and across Kent and Croydon.<\/p>\n

\"01\"Last year, Porchlight managed to help over 4,000 homeless and vulnerable people turn their lives around, and this would not have been possible without the generosity of the general public, local businesses and groups like the UKC Big Band. However, the charity is still in need of your help! More people are needing our help while funds are being cut and this is having a direct impact on our services and in turn, how many people we can reach out to. This is best illustrated through the situation with our Rough Sleeper team, who go out and find rough sleepers early in the morning or in the evening to offer them help, which has been reduced from over twenty\u00a0workers to just\u00a0six over the space of\u00a0two years. This means that more people will be facing the dangers of rough sleeping for longer before we can find and help them. The money\u00a0raised by the UKC Big Band concert could pay for\u00a0two Rough Sleeper team workers for a day plus two welcome packs for someone moving into one of our supported accommodation projects with nothing of their own.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to support the charity and help our services to continue, please check out our website<\/a> and read about the many ways you can get involved<\/p>\n